1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data conversion method and an apparatus for the same which converts an undefined-length image signal, coded by a modified Huffman coding (MH) or modified READ coding (MR) method for facsimile equipment, etc., into fixed-length data.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional data conversion circuit of the above described type has, as shown in FIG. 2, a parallel-serial conversion section (P.fwdarw.S conversion) 21 for inputting, as a piece of input data, an undefined-length code comprising a bit pattern C and a code length L, for converting the data into certain serial data S, and for outputting the data S, and a serial-parallel conversion section (S.fwdarw.P conversion) 22 for converting the serial data S into fixed-length parallel data D having the desired length, and for outputting the data D. The conventional circuit is thus arranged to convert an undefined-length code obtained by a MH or MR method into a fixed-length byte pack.
However, some MH codes have a maximum code length of 13 bits. If such a code is to be converted into serial data by the conventional data conversion circuit, at least 13 clock pulses are necessary. As a result, the conventional circuit requires a long time for the conversion process, and thus fails to perform byte packing at high speeds.